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Quiet Time and Raincoats

Since Jack has stopped napping, things have gone pretty well. He can get a little cranky and a lot whiny by the end of the day and there are some days when it is obvious that he really needs a nap. The more he protests it, the more he probably needs it. But on the days when he has quiet time, it is much less stressful for me. He plays in his bedroom and migrates down to the playroom, but he is quiet. I am no longer listening to him thump around and getting frustrated and angry that he is not napping. He will play for more than an hour and then will come wandering out to find me and show me what he has been doing.

Today, before quiet time, Jack decided that he should play downstairs because there were a lot more toys. I knew that if I stayed downstairs with him that he wouldn’t be able to be “quiet.” This was proven correct as I tried to finish my lunch and he tried to play Candyland by himself. “Mommy, I just landed on the licorice and I’m stuck. I need someone else to go two turns so I can get unstuck. Can you just do that for me?” I obliged and quickly finished my lunch so I could go upstairs. As I was going up he said, “You can go upstairs because I know you are tired. I will stay down here and play.” It’s always nice to have his blessing.

After playing downstairs for a while, he came upstairs with a stack of papers that he had been working on. He has a little notepad and he had ripped a bunch of pages out and colored on all of them. He told me a bizarre little story that I still don’t understand (and didn’t even question).

“These are papers that I just made for the friends…in Annapolis. They have fire in their bellies and this will help them.”

He showed me all the different pages. Some had snakes on them, some were just circles and there was one for me that had a lot of coloring on it. I told him one of the pictures looked like a vacuum cleaner and he said, “Yeah, but it’s the back of it.” Sure. He was so proud of this stack of papers and it’s a shame that I don’t really think they’re going to help the poor Annapolis children with fire in their bellies.

Earlier today before school, Jack and Casey decided they wanted to wear their rain coats and rain boots out. I mentioned that it was all done raining, but they never seem to believe me about the weather. As they were donning said outerwear, they had the funniest conversation. I’m pretty sure it won’t be as funny written down because you can’t hear the pure joy that was in their voices.

Jack said, “Casey, you should be happy that you have a new raincoat now, like me. Do you like your new raincoat, Casey?” And Casey responded with a “Yeah!!!” that really requires three exclamation points. He made this raincoat sound like she had won the lottery. The excitement must have been contagious as Casey’s emphatic ‘yeah’ proved her love for the new raincoat. It is an awfully cute raincoat…pink with white polka dots. I guess they’re like me and it’s the little things that excite them the most.